A Small Public Service – Presenting the IMAB/IPAB

As you may or may not know, the new healthcare reform law created something called the “Independent Payment Advisory Board” (IPAB). It was originally called the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (IMAB), until it was given the mandate to recommend policies that would control costs throughout the entire healthcare system rather than just the part dealing with Medicare and Medicaid. This shift happened at the last minute, and out of the public eye, in something called the Manager’s Amendments (Section 10320). The section expanding the scope of the IMAB is titled “Expansion of the Scope Of, and Improvements To, The Independent Medicare Advisory Board.” You can find the entire text of the law here.

Dr. Rich over at The Covert Rationing Blog has done an excellent job of discussing many of the implications of creating this Board, and I will not repeat them here. I wholeheartedly recommend his posts to one and all. However in reading through the raw text of the new law I found it difficult to comprehend. A large part of the problem is that much of the language has to do with modifying other language this is present elsewhere. Consider just the first few lines pictured below. READ FULL ARTICLE